The jihad in Nigeria

Johnnie Barleycorn

This is another Sudan in the making isn't it? 'Islamists seek to conquer Christians. Christians to blame?'

Philip

Al-BBCeera are still calling it 'ethnic conflict.' The''J'-word has been linguistically cleansed.

John from Toronto

Where is Goldstone?

blue_&_white_avenger

Mr Barleycorn. Agreed.
But it might be useful if the Church leadership stood up for their flock - rather than e.g. suggesting the adoption of sharia law.
Hows about advocating some good Christian virtues - over the "religion of peace"

Beer Moth

Same old, same old.

gareth

I fear it's going to take massive loss of life before we get the message. And even then Noam Chomsky, Polly Toynbee and our national treasure Wedgie Benn will be showing solidarity with the anti-capitalist jihad.

Simone

blue and white avenger:
"But it might be useful if the Church leadership stood up for their flock - rather than e.g. suggesting the adoption of sharia law."

The Bishop of Rochester understands and speaks out, but he has been sidelined by the Church. Pity.

Gil

I'm waiting for the obligatory Alistair Milne article in the Guardian about how the Muslims in Nigeria are the victims here.

Woody

And Alibi Brown was waffling on in today's Independent about Muslims being misunderstood in Britain!

cyllan

the west doesnt want to know because then it would have to do something about it and it doesnt have the courage to do it, is as simple as that, they are afraid of muslims and wont do anyhting, the clock has been ticking for years now

Achile Tookifanu

This kind of things happen when muslims are 50% in a country, they set fire kill and try to kick out the non believers

myopia

Wherever there is a fault-line between muslims and anyone else (Nigeria, India, Thailand, Philippines, Sudan etc, etc) there is conflict. And now our wise leaders for the past fifty years have been enthusiastically creating a fault-line in our midst where none previously existed. Same all across Europe. Problem is, they still continue to deny it is a problem. How long can this madness continue?

Neil Turner

You're right Melanie

I understand some 250,000 Christians are martyred every year across the world

Don't expect the media to notice though

thirdbasecoach

As He Said "The world hated me and they will hate you also" However there is coming a day when every knee will bow to Him and the court will be in session!

YA

"..To understand the real cause of global tumult we should look carefully at Africa.."

We should rather first look at Middle Eastern oil "kingdoms", Iranian Mordor empire, and - not least - that court room where Geert Wilders is on trial for talking truth about jihadi colonization of Europe.

Dawn

The UK MSM are shameless.

Bernard

I've been sending money to the Barnabas Fund for some years now, and receive their magazine Barnabas Aid each month.
When you read the articles it becomes clear that every country where Muslims are dominant, they target Christians solely for being Christian. It has nothing to do with, as the media claim, "a few fundamentalists" but the WHOLE Islamic community hell bent on ethnic cleansing.
It's a shocking read and a serious lesson in what is unfolding across the world.

Alistair D

Re 2nd comment, BBC is indeed coy about saying it's Muslim-on-Christian violence. Even Al-Jazeera says it is! See

http://english.aljazeera.net//news/africa/2010/03/2010389545935621.html

Tendryakov

I feel I should point out some blatant Islamaphobia on the BBC. Question Time last week was from the London Muslim Centre in Whitechapel. In order to promote that vicious old stereotype of Muslims that they are easily angered, excitable and shout a lot, the BBC repeatedly dubbed on some canned shouting, whistling and catcalling, which I found very offensive. I've seen the same tactic used in QT programmes broadcast from solid white Middle England, where they try to promote the stereotype that middle-class English people are restrained and reasonable, in which case they dub on subdued quiet applause, and occasionally, canned silence. I've complained about it.

alan stoddart

It's about land...says the BBC.

Just as Israel/Palestine is about land...and who owns it....Muslim or Jew, Muslim or Christian....so, er, not just about land then. The Crusades were just about land....so what do Muslims moan about now? And didn't they take those lands from Christians anyway?

Dominic

Tendryakov,
I'm sorry to hear about the BBC's supposed dubbing of 'Question Time', but I think you meant for your comment to appear on some other post? The subject on this post is the extent of Muslim violence against Christians involving the deaths of thousands of Christians every year.
Your views on that subject are very welcome.

Sam Armstrong

Firstly, Tendryakov, you are either mad or a liar. The BBC is shamelessly pro-Islamist and very definitely anti-British. Shame on you for trying to invert an obvious truth.

Secondly, how can our 'Christian' leaders go to sleep at night knowing that their fellow travellers are being systematically tortured and killed on the front line, and yet they do or say NOTHING! Not very Christian is it?

As usual, Africa takes the beating on behalf of the West, whilst the biggest news on the Archbishop of Canterbury's website (http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org) is that he is to visit... Guildford.

Great.

Tasman

Thank you Melanie for telling it like it is.

Dixon

"Gil
March 8th, 2010 7:34pm
I'm waiting for the obligatory Alistair Milne article in the Guardian about how the Muslims in Nigeria are the victims here."

Ch4 beat them to it. Jon Snow and Lindsay Hilsum made sure the "alleged" attack ( Im not kidding, she actually said that ) was explained as actually a reprisal for an attack on some Muslims...so you see, they cannot be blamed can they!

But 3/4 of the report was a bunch of guff about the rudderless state of the country, seemingly meant to distract us from the actual story.

Dixon

And you know, in some places Christians are quite literally crucified!

Gil

Woody@7.43pm: 'And Alibi Brown was waffling on in today's Independent about Muslims being misunderstood in Britain!

Is there a worst commentator in Britain than Yasmin Alibhai-Brown? Her latest piece is a shameful piece of self-serving propaganda. Note the Hollywoodish description of the 'posh' Muslim kid who calls her 'Mrs. Yasmin' (ahh...bless)with his 'jagged breaking voice' wanting to leave the UK because (so he thinks) people hate him. Cue violins...

And her description of the violent protesters outside the Israeli Embassy as they simply 'gathered' there. Yeah right! What about the terror attack on Starbucks off Kensington High Street and the other violence? They are airbrushed away in Alibhai-Brown's la la land and called 'insignificant acts of baravado'.

So much self-serving bile in one article I have seldom read. She is a disgrace.

Larry in Tel Aviv

this is all Israel's fault, just ask John Pilger. If we give the Palestinians their own reichlet, the Nigerian Muslims will cease all hostilities. And of course the jihad in India, Phillipines and Thailand will cease to.

Noah Aaron Bashi

And also Kenya asks for Israel's help against jihadists the jihadists are taking over Somalia and threatening to take all Africa, the western media don't care about non muslim Africans they rather support Islamic exterimists then them, Shame!

Jon_Boy

I too found the BBCs predicatble and clumsy coverage almost funny alas if the subject weren't so serious.

All the reports went to excruciating and almost intellectually painfull efforts not to reveal the fact that it was an attack by Muslims on Christians.

I also enjoyed the way they made a super human effort to try and spin the line that this violence isn't really religiously motivated but is in fact a 'complex ethnic, tribal conflict with geophysical aspects'.

And if anyone out there wasn't quite ready to buy that line they threw in the end that it was in fact a possibly understandable revenge attack.

Funny that I wonder if the BBC would also say that the Israelis are simply retaliating or that the Serbians were also justified after being attcked etc etc etc.

Anyone who is undecided out there open your eyes now. A global jihad is being waged against the free world with many western media outlets like the BBC fully co opted into this sick and highly dangerous endeavour.

I would invite people to look at the hatchet job that the BBC did on Thailand a couple of years ago with a couple of programs it did on that countries brutal southern muslim insurgency and the complte demonisation of the Serbian nation during the Balkan wars of which Serbia was just one of three equally brutal participants.

If anyone still doesn't feel uneasy about the overtly pro jihadist and Ilsamist agenda of the BBC, Channel 4 and the Guardian then all I have to say is that either you or your grand children can look forward to what we have recently witnessed in Nigeria eventually and oh so inevitably occuriing here in quiet on England.

GaryO

I've found that muslims can "retaliate" all they want and no one utters a word, but heavens forbid if a non-muslim so much even raises his/her voice in protest and the whole weight of progressive left will descend upon that poor soul.

What's surprising is that people moan about the biased bbc. We know who they are and what their agenda is. They will never change their spots. The only thing to do is to boycott the channel. Why on earth people still watch QT and tune into their news on TV and radio I will never know. Just stop encouraging them.

Liz

Absolutely appalling. Anyone know what the UN's doing about this situation? Any demonstrations planned at British Universities?

Rachael

I wonder if anyone will deign to tell Jeremy Bowen?

Naomi

I am very happy that for the first time someone wrote an article in support of the christians. In January scores of christians women and children were murdered in cold blood and the Muslims later dragged the bodies to the mosque and claimed all the bodies were muslims killed by christians. The attacked this Sunday planned by all the muslims and the muslim army was aimed at wiping out all the christians and the Berom people. They attacked my village in Fan district (KUGOT) burning homes and properties. They hacked old women who could not run. The only thing the BBC can say is that its dispute for recources, how many non-muslims have positions or jobs in Kano or Bauchi, not a single one. The west have ignored this problems because they are been bought by Saudi Arabia and Saudi is the mayjor sponsor of terrorist activities in Nigeria today (Iran and Libia)included.

davidka

Gary o
many of us tune in to gain deeper understanding of how the BBC wordsmiths deceive the public and spread propaganda- it keeps our minds tune to the techniques of disinformation etc employed. Of course many of us cannot bear to listen or view he whole thing so we inevitably turn it off before the end.

Stuart Smith

I too listened to the BBC news this morning (world service) with that weary feeling that I was once again being lied to by omission. "Inter-ethnic" violence as they put it just sounded like an all too predictable BBC evasion of the truth the instant I heard it.

The BBC is such a disgrace that words fail me. And it is a dangerous disgrace at that.

Then they moved on to the sad story of a russian family of three who jumped to their deaths in Scotland while awaiting a decision on their asylum application. This was indeed a truly sad and tragic story. But for the BBC it was nothing other than a chance to invite some professional immigration whinger on the show to speculate at considerable length on the supposed cruelty of the UK's asylum decision-making process.

I found their opportunistic promotion of twisted pro-immigration BBC-liberalism quite sickening, and indeed turned it off after a while, as suggested by one of the comments above.

The abolition of the licence fee system seems the best way to go, then the market can determine what value to place on lies and dogma.

Worried

@Dominic: I believe @ Tendryakov is being somewhat tongue in cheek, and I had to laugh. Dubbed on silence!? I think that was the giveaway. If not, then he is the only one to observe the BBC being biased against Muslims.

john Norman

Thank God for Geert Wilders. He is on to something. Needless to say Alibi Brown deplores his very presence in the country.

David, Thailand

The greater tragedy is not that it happens, but that to our spineless politicians and the lamestream media it doesn't.

Robert Mitchum

This is similar to the situation in the Congo - which I believe Melanie brought to our attention a few weeks ago? With the Left it all depends on who is doing the killing - hence Hitler is always mentioned, Stalin never. Although perhaps over-used, what an appropriate term "useful idiots" is for them. What cold, almost psychopathic hearts they have behind the supposed compassion and search for justice they espouse.

Kiwi

"Orphanage workers kicked out of Morocco."
"Two New Zealanders and their children are to be expelled from Morocco, apparently for being active Christians in an orphanage."
http://www.stuff.co.nz/world/middle-east/3424833/Orphanage-workers-kicked-out-of-Morocco
Just another isolated incident, I suppose.

YA

Tendryakov

Enjoyed your post, awesome.

"You" are one of my favorite writers BTW. Don't leave this blog!

Corin

Melanie, your colleagues at the Daily Mail are censoring any comments that are factual and therefore 'Islamophobic'. The ongoing war against the Christian South of Nigeria for one example. Any facts about the history of Israel and 'Palestine' being another. There seems to be a growing anti-semitism in the DM and I am now wondering if you feel safe being there?

SimonP

A few years ago a team of Nigerians came to my church while on a training course in northeast England. We got on very well with them - and we have fond memories of their friendship, enthusiasm, energy and big personalities.

Toward the end of their time here, I spoke to them about what was going to happen in their country very soon, based on things that I had noticed.

One doesn't need to be a prophet to have forseen this bloodshed - and to forsee that it is going to get a lot worse.

I told the Nigerians two things, and made sure they understood.

First, their country was being targeted by radical Islam, already then happening in the north. It was on its way south in order to take over their country.

Second, I told them that neither the USA nor Britain or any other western country would do anything worthwhile to stop it or to resist it.

I presumed (again, one doesn't have to be a prophet) that a huge amount of money was being raised in order to fund this jihad that is intent on turning the whole African continent Muslim by force - much force. But there is nobody who will come to Nigeria's or to Africa's aid. It's as if Africa and Africans do not matter to the west.

This Mohammedan conquest will go on and on, faster and faster, more violent, much more bloody and with much much more burned to ash - as the jihadists draw encouragement from the fact that they are being allowed by the 'west' to get away with it. They won't even do anything if some Islamist regime covers regions of Africa with nuclear radiation. No, I am not a prophet. But there are some Islmaists who, if they do not get Nigeria, will want to make sure nobody else has it, not even Nigerians.

As you may guess (you do not have to be a prophet), Nigeria strategic in the global jihad. A logical target in the jihadist's hit list. Nigeria has oil. A lot of oil.

Liberals criticized Bush and Blair, saying that they only went into Iraq "for the oil." That's sheer nonsense. But Nigeria and her oil is very important to the jihadists. Important because America and Europe need Nigerian oil, and out buying it makes us (and our military) somewhat less dependant on Muslim oil.

But America and Europe will do little to help Nigeria, and little to help Africa resist the planned, well funded, well organised, well manned Islamic conquest of that whole continent.

Why?

Because the hands of America and Europe are tied, by several things:

1. Alleged white supremacism, which is more widespread than we like to believe.

2. Liberal appeasement and fear of Islamism.

3. 'Post-collonial guilt' in the face of those who argue that British, European and American armies fighting in Africa would smell too much like empire-building. Just like what is said of Americans in Iraq but more so.

4. That evil idea that this world is over-populated - so those who think it will be inclined to let Africans die in order to save the earth's resources.

5. Compassion fatique after so many charities, NGO's etc have already poured millions of the west's donated money into Africa.

6. The idea that it is all about oil, or minerals, or whatever. As though that would be the west's (only) reason for fighting the forces of jihad in Africa. And not as though the jihadists after Nigeria and Africa land and booty and for souls and bodies, slaves and 'wives'.

I sent the Nigerians back to their homeland with tears and prayers and each with a copy of Foxe's Book of Martyrs in their hands. I reminded them that evil things have happened often to Christians thoughout history.

I know what is coming. And so do you.

Modern leftists (if true to their own ideology) CANNOT CARE for the victims of Islamism, whether or without the 'Muslim world'. They cannot even care about their own nations being taken over by Islam(ism).

And, to say the truth, nor can most on the right.

So we will all have to watch this manmade disaster turning Nigeria red with Nigerian blood.

And we will all have to pray, those of us who can.

Why is God allowing this to happen? Now many would believe him even if he told us?

He has told us, but we think we know better, and we think we can do without him.

Dixon

OH the continuing agony of IRONY: Both Sam Armstrong and Dominic looked at a prime example in Tenryakovs piece ( quite brilliant, that it was ) and both managed to take it literally rather than understand the IRONY!

However, it also seems they didnt read past the first line.

That notwithstanding, I again protest that Irony has no place in these debates. It only creates unnecessary ambiguity.

Dixon

Jon Boy: "I also enjoyed the way they made a super human effort to try and spin the line that this violence isn't really religiously motivated but is in fact a 'complex ethnic, tribal conflict with geophysical aspects'."

Thats it, its all caused by "climate change" innit!

Dixon

One thing you can say for Alibi Brown, she does have the most apt first name imaginable for her!

BTW, I find that one is kept up to date with the global pogrom against Christians, whose been killed and where on a day to day basis by Robert Spencer at jihadwatch.org

Philo

"...violent attacks in Jos last January, in which the majority of the victims were Muslim..."

I can't recall if this defence of "the religion that underpins the western world" was celebrated at the time.

Do the comments here reflect a deep knowledge of Nigeria. I admit my ignorance is such that I can't tell.

Augustus

And you can be clear about one thing: When violent conflict breaks out in Northern Nigeria between Christians ansd Muslims,
it is never Christians who provoke it. The people who instigated the killings should be identified and punished by the Nigerian authorities, but past experience shows that to be unlikely. We should all be vigilant about Nigeria, however,
for international terrorist organizations have their eyes on this country, and Mutallab, the would-be Christmas bomber, may not be the last Northern Nigerian Muslim to be recruited by them.

Alan O'Reilly

In his informative book Who Is This Allah? Nigerian Christian G.J.O. Moshay describes the tactics that Mohammed devised in the 7th Century, which Muslims are applying today to overthrow Christianity, p 25.

"Migrate to Christian areas because they are tolerant. Pretend to be peaceful, friendly and hospitable; begin to clamour for religious political and social rights and privileges that you will not allow to Christians in an Islamic country; breed fast there and settle down; there should be no Christian activities in your community; you may speak or write to discredit their religion, but they must not talk about Islam; begin to expand your community; Christian activities should be restricted in all the places you expand to; the moment you have enough military might against these ‘disbelievers’, these trinitarian kaferis, go ahead and eliminate them or suppress them as much as you can, and be in control."

Moshay concludes "Where immediate invasion is not possible, that has always been the policy."

I think Mr. Moshay's comments would have a resonance with UK residents.

SimonP

Hi Philo,

The Christians (or anyone else on the receiving end of jihad)have a right to defend themselves and to fight back.

I know of a (once-) young woman in Nigeria who had a tyre inner tube filled with petrol put around her neck, and she was threatened to have it set alight if she did not renounce her (or, her parents') faith and become a Muslim.

She saved her life by denying that she was a Christian.

Later she was able to escape. And eventually she became a Christian believer for herself (or, she found God's forgiveness and peace; however she might describe it).

But she is still traumatised by this experience and what came after, and what happened to many whom she knew.

She is just one of many examples accross Africa, and beyond, who have faced this 'sword-point' invitation to join the 'religion of peace'.

Reading about what happens when jihad is in progress is enough to terrorise more than the immediate victims (I speak for myself) - whether one reads about what is happening in Nigeria or Sudan or anywhere else. And we don't have to look to some far off land. Such terrors happen even in our 'back yard', streets, under our streets, behond closed doors and in the air. Lest we forget.

These evil men did what they did because of what they believed. They held/hold to a literal interpretation of the Koran, Hadiths, etc.

No true Jew or true Christian - true to their God and Scriptures, I mean - would do anything like that. This I promise you.

Philo please read or listen to the news. All that you can. These things are happening every day.

Nancy Aloju kbonke

Holy Muhammad! look the picture of the child, they killed him and left him on the dirt, what did he do? Nothing

Greg D

'No true Jew or true Christian - true to their God and Scriptures, I mean - would do anything like that. This I promise you.' - SimonP

'those January attacks were in fact Christian retaliation against Muslim aggression' - Mel

Shalt thou not turn the other cheek?

Arnold Levan

The silence of the Catholic and Anglican Churches to this atrocity is deafening.

Temu

Nigeria has serious governance issues i.e. corruption and repression. Al-Beeb, as the creative amongst you call it, got this spot on. It is a conflict about religion and socio-economic disputes.

As for claims of Muslim violence on the continent of Africa and the supposed innocence of Christian believers - give me a break. Actually do some research on the continent before you make ridiculous assertions.

A good starting point would be the Congo/Uganda Lords Rebel Army and then across most sub-saharan african conflict zones you will find armed 'christian groups' committing repeated rape, mutilation, murder, kidnap of children and other hideous crimes.

Melanie is right to highlight violence and I would hope action will be taken (not likely given our economic interests in the country) but the comments have largely descended into moronic drivel.

Africa has so many problems and so much violence that it is not possible to ascribe it all to Muslims, no matter how much that would suit your world view.

NotaSheep

The news is hidden away on the BBC, yet if a Palestinian is inconvenienced by an Israeli roadblock it is headline news. I blogged about this this morning, do read... http://notasheepmaybeagoat.blogspot.com/2010/03/disparity-in-coverage-again.html

phil

just for the doubtful philo and also for the dubious tendryakov ------

Breaking News

Muslims Arrested Over Cartoonist Murder Plot

1 hour 6 mins ago
SkyNews © Sky News 2010

Seven Muslims have been arrested in Ireland over an alleged plot to kill a cartoonist who depicted the prophet Mohammed with the body of a dog.------------------------------
lovely people ? same ones who refer to Jews as monkeys and enjoy killing Christians -strange bedfellows philo -yet again .

Dixon

"Greg D
March 9th, 2010 4:23pm
'No true Jew or true Christian - true to their God and Scriptures, I mean - would do anything like that. This I promise you.' - SimonP

'those January attacks were in fact Christian retaliation against Muslim aggression' - Mel

Shalt thou not turn the other cheek?"

Greg, you are simultaneously missing the point and putting your finger on it: "True Christians" do indeed turn the other cheek ( Im not a Christian in any sense, BTW ), whilst "true Muslims" must by the same token do as their book tells them, to whit Surah 9, verse 29 "Fight those who believe not in Allah" (Yusf Ali translation, Wordsworth Press ). In the Arabic it is put in somewhat stronger terms.

Dixon

Temu, true to a point, BUT, the Muslim violence in Africa conforms to a global pattern, a diaspora of "Ethnic cleansing" ( attrition by murder of Christian, Hindu, Seikh, Budhist neighbours ) whereas the other violence in Africa is entirely localised and specific.

It may suit you to adopt an air of pomposity, citing a couple of utterly irrelevant facts and dismissing everything else out of hand as "drivel", but really that only declares your wealth of ignorance about what is happening globally.Just take a klook at Thailand and the five years of war by Mulims on Buddhists there, which has cost more lives per-capita ( a much smaller net total but in a vastly smaller population )than the war in Iraq.
What have Buddhist monks, schoolteachers and school-kids ( the latter being the principal victims ) done to provoke that? Apart from open their shops on Fridays.

The "Al-Beeb" and CH4 guff about the national political scene in Nigeria is just a decoy provided on behalf of ingenuous tools such as yourself.

Temu

Dixon,

I do not see a global pattern. I see separate instances of violence, motivated by multiple factors, one of which is religion.

In the case of Africa, there exist multiple ethnic or religious groups committing violent acts, as I mentioned in my last post, so if you want to boil it down to religion then Christians are responsible for many more deaths. Does it mean its not a violent religion if acts are against other Christians? Or are you judging the ‘violence’ of a religion on another scale?

I admire MP for journalism generally but Islam is becoming an unhealthy obsession for many on this blog. There are many reasons for instability, injustice and violence in the world, and Jihad is only one of them. To illustrate what I mean, there are excuses made for Serbian genocide on this blog on the lines of it being 'one of three equally brutal participants'. This is ignorant garbage and just fits the narrative the person has chosen. Whilst the war was horrific overall there are multiple instances of coordinated extermination by the Serbs for which no possible excuses can be made.

Looking through a wider lens, what about Hindu violence against Christians in India? Or is that irrelevant? I presume Christian violence in Northern Ireland is also irrelevant?
In my mind these are largely independent instances of violence and I do not think it is possible to attribute violence to a religion but to a persons actions, for which they alone are responsible. But there is the possibility to create a narrative around Christian or Hindu aggression that could be compelling if you already hold assumptions about one those groups.

Essentially, I am worried by what I see as outright hatred that is surfacing against Muslims, here and throughout the UK. I think people really need to take a step back clarify what it is they are willing to sanction in terms of action, and the consequences this has for their moral superiority. What would the Geert Wilders/BNP supporters here want in terms of policy to deal with the 'threat'?

Greg D (9 March 3:55pm) asked:
"Shalt thou not turn the other cheek?"

Confuscious's auntie said

"He who turns other cheek might get head chopped off"

Dixon

Temu, you are just spewing more of that same ingenuous guff. Demonstrating further why the war of Islam against the rest of humanity...resuming now in its second millenium after a brief pause in the 20th Century...is THE defining geo-political and cultural issue of our time.

YA

Temu

"Hindu violence against Christians"

"Wilders/BNP"

You try to present another version of exemplary useful idiot - but stitches are well seen. Crude job. Sorry Temu - not convincing.

Saul V

I'm sure there is not a single Christian in Nigeria who has done anything wrong. Even if there was I'm sure you could blame Muslims for it somehow. Keep your jihad going Mel, somewhere, somehow Islam is not being blamed for all the world's ills and that is just wrong... plus, I want to be able to say clever things like "al-BBCeera", "political correctness gone mad", and "the silence is deafening".

Eddie

Yes this is Jihad - but it's also typical African tribal savagery. Just let up get on with it and stop all aid to them till they starve. That'll quieten stuff down. Aid just props up the inate corruption and violence of the africans.

Of course the BBC will not report this muslims violence honestly: its agenda is that muslims are fluffy little bunnies who never have a nasty thought and only ever enrich our vibrant and diverse society. Yeah right - tell the families of the victims to the 7/7 suicide bombers...

I am so sick to the ethnic-obsessed and Islamo-philiac BBC that I wonder if paying the BBc a licence fee to fund propaganda for this country's enemies is justified any more.

YA

March 10, BBC4 news synopsis:

1) MI6 complicity in mistreatment by Americans

2) Jewish settlements in East Jerusalem

3) child abuse in Christian schools in Europe

4) harmful effects of biofuels

100% engineered anti-Western propaganda - and they are paid from taxpayers' money for that.

The most unpleasant thing here is - there is no way to oppose it. Jihadis are already really in control. Where do you start? Turn off radio?

Does somebody know a radio station broadcasting news in human language, in the right order? One needs to buy more poweful radio receiver although.. That more and more resembles Soviet Union.

Just think about it - "maybe illegally scratched" 5 years ago (not by Americans and not by British) balls of a terrorist (who planned to blow up apartment buildings in the US), who is now alive and well, - are presented as more important than killing (three days ago) of hundreds of women and children hacked to pieces by knives, by the co-religionists of the said terrorist.

Margaret Muller-Johansson

I hope those Africans stand up for themselves and their rights, I know in Africa people don't believe political correctness like the people in the west and they are not left liberals either, I hope they protect themselves from the evil jihadists

Stephanie Anderson

Thank you for stating the truth clearly and plainly! It's about time someone did!

C Solberg

In the interest of hearing voices from people in the area, I present to all jihad-obsessives frequenting these comments pages this quote from the Anglican Arch-Bishop of Jos:

"There are, however, many Muslims who totally disagree with violence as a means of settling issues, and of course it is not in accordance with the gospel to use violence to settle issues either. What seems to be a recurring decimal is that over time, those who have in the past used violence to settle political issues, economic issues, social matters, intertribal disagreements, or any issue for that matter, now continue to use that same path of violence and cover it up with religion. /snip

The national leadership should be lifted up to God, that they may rise beyond a concern for political success and seek to do good and right in all things for the benefit of all people. This is a most urgent prayer request, because Nigeria as a nation has a large and ever-increasing army of leaderless, lawless, unemployable, unemployed, demoralized, and near hopeless youth. This, to my prophetic mind, is the big security issue which the governments at local, state and federal levels are not taking seriously. For example, every crisis in Nigeria in the last ten years has been executed by this generation of young people. With each passing year, they perfect their skills, and when they run out of a supply of money—or when they become bored with any situation—then any opportunity for action gives them satisfaction. This army has no religion, but can choose to go under the name of religion to achieve its motives. They are uneducated, and so their values are totally different, as are their ways of handling weapons or choosing how issues are settled."

I can't wait to hear y'all explain that away.

Jon_Boy

Temu since when is the statement that the Balkans war involved three equally brutal participants a justification for war crimes?

I just object to the media campaign to delegitimise and demonise the entire Serbian people and nation.

I also can not comprehend why so few Muslims and Croats have ever been hauled in front of the inetrnational courts.

A friend of mine who works for the immigration department in the UK several times in the past has been asked to admit persons to this country for meetings. Even after being told by officers of special branch that these people were Jihadist war criminals from the Balkans wanted for lopping off christian people's heads in the mosque in Sarajevo.

All I know is that the whole region was full of foreign jihadists including Palastinians during that war who were committing what any sane person would describe as war crimes alongside native Balkan Muslim fighters.

Yet none of this was ever reported by most Western media outlets and none of the criminals ever later pursued by any of the war crimes authorities.

In fact they were often allowed into the UK for cosy chats with our authorities.

After everything that happened in the Balkans war the Serb army must be considered the most useless ethnic cleansers in history as all that has happened is that Serbs have now themselves been ethnically cleansed from many areas of the Balkans and ended up with more Serbian refugees than any other of the other brutal participants in that conflict.

Robert Godfrey

Christianity? Uphold the western world? All it bought us was war, repression and witch hunts, the sooner we are rid of churches the better.

phil

And yet still this wonderful country of my birth seems more concerned with binyam mohhamed and his rights ,a man who was picked up in a war zone whilst fighting on behalf of the enemy, I might add ,not attending a christening ,a barmitzvah or even an Arsenal away match .Our own security people are castigated for what might have been done by agents of another state and their careers threatened ,Meanwhile his incredible lawyer is no doubt being paid fortunes by our legal aid system .Well I have no doubt the wonderful purveyor of all that is true in this world ,,by now you will know it must be shami shakrabati,can tell us why we are living in a place fit for ALICE IN WONDERLAND .I must emphasise that I still love my country ,but perhaps I am sustained by the memory of what it once was ,tolerant,wealthy influential and SANE

Mr. Mabutoh Afunfa

Robert Godfrey if you want to get rid of Christianity what do you want to replace it? Islam, don't worry soon Sharia law is going to come to you, you will get what you deserve

SimonP

C Solberg

There is nothing in your quote to explain away.

There is alot more to pray for in Nigeria than for their deliverence from being turned into another Islamist nation.

SimonP

Mr. Mabutoh Afunfa,

God bless you, my brother. Having jihadists on the warpath is bad enough, but to have Robert Godfrey wanting to destroy our churches too - that's - er, postmodern tolerationism, I suppose.

SimonP

Greg D, "Shalt thou not turn the other cheek?"

Even Christians would not be doing wrong if they had to defend themselves, their families, and their nation.

Yes, we must turn all the other cheek.

Of course we must pray too, and turn from our sins in order for God to save us.

If we all turned the other cheek and left it at that, we might have a sandaled foot stamping on our faces forever.

SimonP

Eddie
March 10th, 2010 7:12am
"Yes this is Jihad - but it's also typical African tribal savagery. Just let up get on with it and stop all aid to them till they starve."

Ha, you should see the white savages and the way they slaughter each other! Just let them get it untill.....

John

I'm saddened by this. My prayers go out to the Nigerian Christian community. I've been supporting Nigeria for years through other Christian ministries and this is the first news I've received of what is truly going on there! Thank you. I pray for everyone and every situation in the world, daily. Shalom

Francesca Conti

Very sad thing you said get rid of the church Robert Godfrey, I was sitting the park last week when the weather was nice group of young English/British probably lefties was talking about get rid of churches, religion, Christianity even they said get rid of the royalty the Queen this is sad the British left who think they are so cool want to get rid of all the culture and historical things, in the future you will not have any culture left, the only thing I can say is please don't get rid of anything keep your culture, your religion, your Royalty, your history that is the only way people can respect you

C Solberg

SimonP: Nothing in my quote to explain away? Here's the highest ranking Anglican clergyman on the ground in the area saying that this has pretty much nothing to do with Islam or religion and everything to do with disaffected and armed youth, power struggles and leadership failures. This directly contradicts MP's assertion, evidently shared by the vast majority of commentators, that this is part of some global jihad. Are you that blind that you can't see what's written in front of your eyes?

Jojo Lebon

C Solberg the jihadists in Sweden, Finland, Australia, are trying to do the same thing they are not armed youth or struggling with power, but they still making problems for us, I hope you understand

vic huglin

A terrible tragedy but there is always a danger in making statements about " the muslims " or " the christians " . it is wrong to demonise all groups . This act was perpetrated by evil muslms who need to be brough to face justice but to demonise all fosters more hatred and retribution

Abdullah

How come you didnt mention the hundreds of muslims that had been killed by Christian gangs only a few days earlier? Not a Nigerian Crusade

Rabbit

C Solberg
March 11th, 2010 3:25pm
SimonP: Nothing in my quote to explain away? Here's the highest ranking Anglican clergyman on the ground in the area saying that this has pretty much nothing to do with Islam or religion and everything to do with disaffected and armed youth, power struggles and leadership failures. This directly contradicts MP's assertion, evidently shared by the vast majority of commentators, that this is part of some global jihad. Are you that blind that you can't see what's written in front of your eyes?

Yes, disaffected and armed youth being taken advantage of by jihadist groups, bear in mind that this Anglican clergyman is part of the church which is led by the Archbishop in our country, who thinks that we should have sharia law here. If you look at the information from the Barnabas fund, you will see what the ordinary people on the ground think about the whole matter

Rabbit

Abdullah
March 12th, 2010 3:30am
How come you didnt mention the hundreds of muslims that had been killed by Christian gangs only a few days earlier? Not a Nigerian Crusade

How come you didn't mention the hundred of Christians being killed by muslims all over the world everyday?

SimonP

C Solberg
March 11th, 2010 3:25pm
SimonP: Nothing in my quote to explain away? Here's the highest ranking Anglican clergyman on the ground in the area saying that this has pretty much nothing to do with Islam or religion and everything to do with disaffected and armed youth, power struggles and leadership failures. This directly contradicts MP's assertion, evidently shared by the vast majority of commentators, that this is part of some global jihad. Are you that blind that you can't see what's written in front of your eyes?

Not that blind. I see and hear from more sources than this "highest ranking Anglican clergyman." Christians have learned not to rely on the MSM - where you're not told even half of what's going on. The internet can be a real eye-opener, sometimes.

SimonP

Abdullah
March 12th, 2010 3:30am
How come you didnt mention the hundreds of muslims that had been killed by Christian gangs only a few days earlier? Not a Nigerian Crusade

Hi Abdullah,

Please tell us more about the Nigerian Christian jihad against Muslims. Are they targetting peaceful Muslims or those who are trying to take them out?

C Solberg

Rabbit, the link you draw between the CoE's position on Sharia in England and the stance of Anglicans in Nigeria is wrong.
Ben Kwashi, the arch-bishop of Jos, is no friend of Sharia (link: http://www.nicene-faith.com/discom/Shared%20Documents/Archbishop%20Rowan%20Williams/ABC%20on%20Sharia%20Law/Kwashi%20on%20Sharia-A.pdf), and has stated that he is worried about the spread of sharia in Nigeria, as well as in the UK.

As for the Barnabas fund, they're not exactly renowned for their nuanced take on the context in which motivations to join jihadi organisations form. Instead their take is that people join jihadi groups solely out of religious concerns, and that social, economic and political contexts in which that happens are essentially insignificant. I'm sorry, but nothing I've read over the last 15 years about the rise of Islam-branded, non-state violence leads me to think that such is the case. You are of course welcome to disagree with that.

Rabbit

C Solberg,if it is all to do with context, then why are young men in rich Western nations (including our own) joining the jihadists(the young men who carried out the London bombings were born in this country with all its benefits and priviledges

C Solberg

Rabbit: You're failing to understand what I wrote, but that's fair enough, happens to all of us. What I meant was that in the case of Nigeria and Muslim-Christian conflicts there, one cannot understand these events without looking at the socio-cultural and political context of the situation. Meaning, it's not mainly about religion and jihad, but about power, money and resources. Nowhere did I mention Jihadis in Western countries, and nowhere did I assume that the reasons why people go to war or commit acts of terrorism are always and everywhere the same.

But as you raise the topic, let me try and furnish you with an answer. Firstly, it's evident that there are links between Islamist and Jihadist (as distinct from Islam conceived as a whole) beliefs and attitudes held by for example UK youth and willingness to organize and perpetrate terrorist acts.

You ask, why, in the absence of poverty, do these young men (and sometimes women) advocate and even perpetrate acts of religiously and politically framed violence? I believe the main reason is that the behaviour of Western societies towards Muslim countries, ethnic groups and Muslim values is perceived by these people as attacking their sacred values, values that are not based on utility, money, power or other rational motives, but values anchored in deeply held convictions about the transcendental worth of holy objects, actions, places and people. Remember that al-Qaeda was happy to leave the US and the West alone up until Allied troops were stationed on “holy land” in Saudi Arabia as part of Gulf War 1. Prior to that he was happy to take money and training off them.

Viewed in this light, we need to separate out terrorism from war. The ongoing conflict in Nigeria is war-like more than terror-like. It’s a conflict about resources, power, and social status. Suicide bombers have none of these in mind. You don’t get to enjoy the spoils of the victor when you’re dead!

Rabbit

C Solberg,
There is no point in continuing this disussion as we are never going to agree with each other. thankyou for being so polite, even though you disagreed with me.

SimonP

C Solberg,

It is true that there are various factors involved - land, resources, poverty, etc. But if you are arguing that these factors are sufficient causes to explain this warfare in Nigeria, sorry but I don't buy that.

The more contact I have with Nigerian Christians, the more I don't see any drive in them to attack each other, or Muslims, or anyone else in order to get more land, resources, money, etc.

And I am happy to believe and agree that many Muslims (hopefully still the majority in Nigeria; and long may it remain so!) have no ambition to gain these things by violence either.

So, of course it is not nonviolent people, of any religion or none, which are the cause of this violence.

And for Christians whose mindset is shaped by the peaceful, charitable religion of Jesus Christ, there is nothing in their religion (I speak as an insider) which would drive them to steal, loot, raid, conquer, or subjugate others in order to take what the others have got.

The same, I hope, is true for many Muslims. And in general, this is our experience of Muslims.

Christians are placed in a dilemma when they are attacked. Shall they turn the other cheek or defend themselves? Some go to pacifism; others are pacifist for as long as they can bear it, but at some point take up arms in defence of their families, possessions, communities and nation.

I cannot accept the idea that Christians are aggressors, or that scarce resources would drive real Christians in Nigeria to go on a rampage though Muslim neighbourhoods.

Sure I am biased towards Christians; I am a Christian. I believe Christians are peace-loving and essentially tolerant of those who are tolerant of them. I believe that, following the holy book that Christians, who are worthy of the name, profess to believe in and to live by. Our religion restrains us, and teaches us a more excellent way - love, in the best sense of the word. (1st Corinthians ch.13).

I wish the jihadists, and other violent young men whom they "radicalise" and stir up, were so restrained.

C Solberg

SimonP & Rabbit,

thanks for the civil replies - a rarity in these comments pages in my experience.

I've merely one comment to make about the role of Christianity and churches in Nigeria, and that is simply that they're not always and everywhere as nice and charitable as SimonP would like us to belive.

Example #1: Witness the abandonment, abuse and murder of children accused of witch-craft, mainly by Pentecostal Christians.

Google Helen Ukpabio or Stepping Stones for more info.

SimonP

Hi C Solberg,

Would you believe I wasn't speaking on behalf of the kind of 'Christians' who have accused children of witchcraft). I would consider such as less like Christians and more like actual witches themselves.

The Nigerian Christians I know personally, though lively in their singing, have nothing to do with the evils you speak of. These headline-grabbing crimes are not characteristic of authentic Christianity, Nigerian or otherwise.

And neither is violence and war characteristic of authentic Christianity.

It is wrong to think that all religions are as dangerous as each other.

But you did not really think I was trying to speak up for such atrocities and absurdness, did you?

Thanks for the exchange. Over and out.

C Solberg

SimonP

I guess that deserves a final comment from myself to. The point I was trying to make, albeit in hindsight too obliquely, was that names and labels can be deceptive. Just as some people justify the murder of children in the name of Jesus, so other people murder their neighbours in the name of Muhammed. All I'm asking you, and others who might care enough, is to think twice before blaming all ills perpetrated by people of faith on that very faith. Even if they justify it in religious terms. Perhaps especially if they justify it in religious terms. I mean, despite what some of you seem to believe, Islamic theology is pretty much as (little) war-mongering as Judaism and Christianity.